Remember, NEVER ask, “One Hump or Two?”

Theater Review: “The Road To Qatar”
The York Theater – Feb 4, 2011 – 8:00 pm

by Elli – The King Of Broadway

Did you hear the one about the two, short, Jewish, Musical Theater writers who get an email from an Emir in Qatar (Dubai) who commissions them to travel there and write a brand new musical to inaugurate the new sports arena? Sounds crazy, no? Well it happened. Imagine a real-life version of a “Road To” movie: “Two Short Jews on the Road To Qatar” (sung to the tune of “Two Lost Souls” from Damn Yankees).

As a kid I was a huge TV watcher (okay, so that never went away), but back then I would often fake being sick just to stay home and watch something I liked on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie. Among my favorite guilty pleasures (and I do mean guilty because I was totally faking it), were the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope “Road” flicks. “The Road to Morocco” is among my all-time favorites. So you can understand how happy I was to hear that Stephen Cole and David Krane had turned their real-life Road story into a musical.

“The Road To Qatar” at the York Theatre is a perfect tribute to those “Road” pictures that I love. It is an (almost) true story told and sung by a talented 5 member cast. James Beaman (Spamalot, National Tour) as Michael and Keith Gerchak (Finding Nemo, The Musical) as Jeffrey, portray the talented authors genuinely, if not lovingly. Having had the opportunity to work with their real-life counterparts as they rehearsed the show, their performances are a tribute to their creators. They each add their own perfect, comedic timing to make the two leads sufficiently nebbishy and lovable at the same time. Bill Nolte (La Cage aux Folles) as Mansour – well, just look at those eyes and you’ll fall out of your chair laughing – embodies the sleazy, desert producer out for a buck and a hustle as he carries out his Boss’s every whim. Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q) shines as Nazirah, hired as a translator and go between aiming to please her boss, Mansour, as well as the writers. The very funny Bruce Warren (The Wizard of Oz) is frightening and delightful as Farid, the very serious nephew of the Emir hired to oversee his uncle’s investment. Mr. Warren also gets to display his comedic skills as Claudio, the foppish, flamboyant, Italian director brought in to stage the musical. While speaking of directors, the very creative, playful and talented direction of Phillip George (Forbidden Broadway), makes us feel as if we have been transported into the world of these “two, short, Jews” and their seemingly impossible task to please the Emir.

The opening number Opening serves as an introduction to the story setting the stage for the events to follow. Must Be is the list of rules of what the Musical must contain, while Good Things Come In Threes is the author’s rebuttal to the rules. Doesn’t Matter is a delightful dream sequence where the boys dream about what would happen if their hosts realized that their hires are Jewish. 15 of the 16 songs are original to this show while only one song, Aspire, a great closing number, was actually in the real musical that Messrs. Cole and Krane wrote.

All the shows tunes are enjoyably done in true musical theatre style and are fun to hear and see thanks to the delightful choreography by Bob Richard (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!), which is spot on for the confines of a small stage. The excellent musical direction/Piano is provided by David Caldwell (Children of Eden) and his wonderful orchestra, Mike Kuenne (Accoustic and Electric Bass), Perry Cavari (Drums/Percussion), Steve Greenfield (Reed One: Flute, Clarinet, Soprano Sax) and Rick Walburn (Reed Two: Flute, Clarinet, Alto Sax).
It is refreshing to see new theater work (as opposed to a musical remake of some B-flick). Unfortunately, this is a limited run and many shows are close to. or completely, sold out. I strongly suggest that you go immediately to the York Theatre’s website and reserve your tickets and enjoy your trip down “The Road To Qatar”.

***

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) presents the Off-Broadway premiere of the new true musical comedy, The Road to Qatar!, featuring book and lyrics by Stephen Cole and music by David Krane, with direction by Phillip George (Forbidden Broadway), choreography by Bob Richard (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!) and musical direction by David Caldwell (Children of Eden). The five- member cast features James Beaman (Spamalot, National Tour) as Michael, Keith Gerchak (Finding Nemo, The Musical) as Jeffrey, Bill Nolte (La Cage aux Folles) as Mansour, Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q) as Nazirah, and Bruce Warren (The Wizard of Oz) as Farid.

Performances began Tuesday, January 25, 2011 and continue through Sunday, February 27, 2011 at The Theatre at Saint Peter’s (619 Lexington Avenue, entrance on East 54th Street).

The Road to Qatar is a new true musical comedy about two American musical theatre writers commissioned to do the impossible: write a larger-than-life Broadway-style mega-musical for the Emir of Qatar that includes 100 actors, 40 camels, 17 fire-eating jugglers and Muhammad Ali. Surprises abound as the quirky self-professed “short Jewish writers” leave New York and begin trotting the globe in their own version of a madcap Bob Hope/Bing Crosby adventure.
The creative team also includes Michael Bottari & Ronald Case (Set, Costume & Puppet Design), Martin Vreeland (Lights), and Chris Kateff (Projections). The Production Stage Manager is Sarah Hall. The musical is produced by special arrangement with Paul Burchett in association with Coltrane, LLC.

The creative team also includes Michael Bottari & Ronald Case (Set, Costume & Puppet Design), Martin Vreeland (Lights), and Chris Kateff (Projections). The Production Stage Manager is Sarah Hall. The musical is produced by special arrangement with Paul Burchett in association with Coltrane, LLC.

The Road to Qatar will play the following performance schedule: Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m., Wednesdays- Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m., with special Sunday matinee performances on February 13th, 20th & 27th at 2:30pm.

Please visit www.yorktheatre.org for the complete performance schedule. Tickets are $67.50 and are available online at www.yorktheatre.org, by calling (212) 935-5820, or in person at the box office at the York Theatre at Saint Peter’s (enter on 54th Street, just East of Lexington), and are currently on sale through Sunday, February 27th. Running time is approximately 90 minutes.

For complete info about the reviewer, please go to www.thekingofbroadway.com and follow on twitter/tkob

Video Interview with Richard Skipper as Carol Channing

After a wonderful performance I had the opportunity to get an depth interview with Richard Skipper as Carol Channing (and as Richard Skipper too!)

Filmed at The Theatre at S. Lukes
For more info go to
www.AsCarol.com
or
http://www.richardskipper.com/ 

Miss Coco Peru Is Still Alive!

Miss Coco Peru Is Still Alive!
Laurie Beechman Theater – November 7, 2010 – 7:30 pm

By Elli – The King Of Broadway

HEADLINE: “DRAG QUEEN FROM THE BRONX ABDUCTED BY ALIENS LIVES TO TELL THE TALE!”

Sounds fantastic, right? I’ll get to that soon. In the meantime, I don’t want to spoil the show by telling you all the jokes. What I will tell you is that this show is not what you are expecting.

Miss Coco Peru Is Still Alive! is so much more than a stand-up comedy routine replete with musical numbers, sound effects, specialty lighting, visual aids and copious monologues, and to my delight, the show has heart.

This autobiographical Cabaret performance is definitely a one person show of the quality found lately on Broadway. Coco Peru is now the ultimate storyteller. Retelling the story of growing up ‘different’ on City Island in the Bronx, Miss Coco’s story is at once funny and heartwarming, happy and sad, and several times I was moved to tears only to be laughing uncontrollably moments later. Coco Peru also displays quite a vocal range as a singer, something I had not known before. The songs (Barry Manilow of course) are blended into the story as if this were a Jukebox Musical like Mama Mia.

“Not quite as famous as RuPaul,” as Miss Coco says in the show, I first became a fan when I saw her in the movie, Trick and fell in love with her all over again on Logo TV’s “One Night Stand Up.” Whether you are a fan of old, or have never heard of this fabulous artist, chances are you’ll fall in love with Miss Coco soon after the show begins.

Oh, and the abduction? “That’s a very long story, and Coco Peru is going to tell it to you… all in just a little over an hour”, when you attend Miss Coco Peru Is Still Alive! at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.

Storyteller/monologist Miss Coco Peru (aka Clinton  Leupp) grew up in the Bronx on City Island and got his/her start as a downtown favorite in the cabaret world of NYC after she wrote, produced, directed, and starred in her first show Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret in the early 90’s. On screen Miss Coco is best known for her roles in Jim Fall’s Fineline feature film, Trick (Sundance 1999) and Richard Day’s IFC feature length comedy Girls Will Be Girls. Coco also has her very own half- hour Logo TV comedy special taped as part of the “Wisecrack” series. The episode airs regularly and is available on iTunes.

Originally directed for the theater by Michael Schrialli, Miss Coco Peru Is Still Alive! continues its run November 12-14, Friday-Sunday at 7:30pm at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street — at Ninth Avenue.

Tickets are $20 with a $15 food/drink minimum per person, available at www.SpinCycleNYC.com or by calling 212-352-3101.

For complete info about the reviewer, please go to www.thekingofbroadway.com and follow on twitter/tkob

Johnny Rodgers Band – Bon Voyage Party

Johnny Rodgers Band – Bon Voyage Party
Birdland – October 25, 2010 – 7:00 pm

by Elli – The King Of Broadway

Hello. My name is Elli, and I am a JRB-aholic.

In my last review of the Johnny Rodgers Band (JRB) I made no attempt to hide the fact that I am a JRB fan. Not just your average, run-of-the-mill fan, but more along the lines of a bobby-sox-wearing Fan Boy. Tonight’s Bon Voyage Concert at the famous and fabulous Birdland Jazz Club really sealed the deal.

Last time I complained about the “much too short hour long set” and Johnny, of course, took my criticism to heart and this time wooed us with nearly an hour and a half of his, oozing-with-charm style, and his delicious music.

Opening the set with his New Orleans inspired “Miss Dixie,”Johnny broke with the traditional ‘wait till the end to introduce the band’ and gave each of his talented band-mates a sweet solo turn followed by a formal introduction of each of his uber-talented musicians, Brian Glassman on bass, Danny Mallon on drums and additional vocals, and Joe Ravo on guitar.

Slipping effortlessly

into the next tune, Johnny proved once again that Johnny Mercer’s “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” might easily have been written about him, for truly, Johnny is at home on any stage.

For this wonderful show, Mr. Rodgers again mixed his own songs, “Home to Mendocino,” “Mary Jean,”

“She” with its light Bossa Nova beat, and “The Best of You in Me” with the hits of the American Songbook. “Let’s Get Lost” was smooth, soft and romantic. “Too Marvelous For Words” was an upbeat, bass-driven, cornucopia of tongue-twisting fun. Hoagy Carmichaels’ “Huggin’ & Chalkin’” was not only funny, but staged as if it were part of a Vaudeville Review.

During tonight’s show, I also made a few new discoveries. The Bands arrangements and performance seemed to mesmerize the audience. It was unusually quiet and as I looked around everyone was transfixed on the band. I also discovered that all of the JRB’s original songs had a familiar feeling – they were written like songs I knew very well. Even though I have only heard them a few times before, I could almost hum along, as if I had heard them all dozens of times before. That familiarity made me comfortable. So, when Johnny and the band began “What A Wonderful World,” all my troubles, every issue, every negative thought in my head, melted away, and all I felt was peace and love.

Just when it seemed that Mr. Rodgers had covered every style of music that there is, he pulled one more out of his hat. In his off time, i.e. between performing, travelling and preparing an overseas tour, Johnny took the helm as the Music Supervisor, Musical Director, Arranger, Orchestrator, and co-Songwriter with Sue Fabisch, for Motherhood The Musical (from the producers of Menopause The Musical) currently playing an extended run in South Florida. Tonight we were treated to one of the songs from that show, “Grannyland,” which Johnny performed, in character, with Granny-glasses and silver wig.

Of course, since Johnny performs only for me, he included my favorite JRB tune, Ray Henderson’s’ “Birth of the Blues” (and no broken piano bench this time).

From Big Band to Jazz to Showtunes to Scat, the Johnny Rodgers Band has it all covered. With his sweet smile, silky voice and enough charm to last forever, Johnny is the ultimate entertainer.

A few days after this Bon Voyage Party at Birdland, the JRB hits “The Rhythm Road” taking American Music Abroad touring Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands (Fiji, New Guinea, Singapore, Cambodia, Burma and Malaysia) from November 2-29.

“We’re really honored to be part of a program that has been such a piece of American history,” says Johnny Rodgers. “Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong have big footsteps to follow!”

This Tour is sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center & the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.

The Johnny Rodgers Band will be back in NYC on December 11th, 2010 performing at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. For more information, and to follow their International travels, check out theJRB website.

A gifted songwriter, Mr. Rodgers won ASCAP’s Jamie deRoy & Friends Foundation Award in 2009, The New York Sheet Music Society’s Gerald Marks Award and the Songwriters Hall of Fame Abe Oldman Award. Other honors include the Nitelife Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist Award 2010, Backstage Magazine’s Bistro Award and the MAC Award. Mr. Rodgers recently made his Broadway debut co-starring in the Tony Award winning “Liza’s At The Palace” with Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award winning superstar Liza Minnelli. JRB’s recently released CD, “Box of Photographs” (PS Classics) has won acclaim from critics and radio stations across the country.

For complete info about the reviewer, please go towww.thekingofbroadway.com and follow him on twitter/tkob

Judy Gold – JEWDY! JEWDY! JEWDY!

Judy Gold – JEWDY! JEWDY! JEWDY!
Laurie Beechman Theatre – January 11th 2010 – 7:00 pm

By Elli – The King Of Broadway

When you go see Judy Gold, (the Emmy-winning actress/comedienne recently seen Off-Broadway in 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother), perform her latest show, “Jewdy! Jewdy! Jewdy!” prepare to laugh your a** off, and make sure you don’t sit in the front row…

Ms. Gold’s website says, “It’s about a girl named Judy…”  and In her new stand-up comedy show, currently playing at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, it really is. Ms. Gold holds back nothing when attacking the anti-smoking ads wth ‘Marie from the Bronx’, taking the kids to day care, or discussing how to boil an egg with her mother on the phone. Speaking of her mother, Ms. Gold tells us she calls her mother every day – just to get new material.

Ms. Gold’s humor brings back the Jewish comics of the ‘Borscht belt’ days in the Catskills – with some naughty words included. While giving us a hilarious rant about the daily goings on of a Jewish, lesbian, mother of 2 boys, with a loving partner and ‘Shwendy’ the hated ex, she still manages to engage the audience, calling out ‘did this ever happen to you’ questions. And she expects answers, which is why you should avoid the front row – unless you like to be picked on!

Using visual aids, Ms. Gold punctuates many of her stories with a projector and screen, showing us pictures of her two boys, her ex, her family, “That’s Jesus Christ over there”, and even her son’s Bar Mitzvah invitation list, with commentary on each of the invitees, of course. Oh, and let’s not forget Marie from the Bronx!

Judy Gold will definitely leave you laughing and wondering, where is David Fleischman?

Judy Gold won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work as a writer and producer on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She was a regular on Hollywood Squares and has appeared on numerous TV series such as All American Girl and HBO’s At the Multiplex. She can also be seen regularly on Logo TV doing her standup comedy and on TruTV’s “The Smoking Gun Presents: World’s Dumbest”

Ms. Gold will be performing Jewdy! Jewdy! Jewdy! at The Laurie Beechman Theatre again on Jan. 18 and 25, 2010, at 7 PM. There is a $25 cover charge, as well as a $15 food/beverage minimum (a full dinner menu is available). The Laurie Beechman Theatre is located within The West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street. For reservations call (212) 695-6909